Tarrafal, Cape Verde

Tarrafal prison camp, Cape Verde Islands - darkometer rating : 6 - A former prison/ concentration camp in the then Portuguese colony of Cape Verde , namely on the island of Santiago. It mainly served as a place of incarceration of political prisoners during Portugal 's long dictatorship at home and during the independence struggles of the country's African colonies. Disbanded in 1974 and more recently turned into a memorial, the ex-camp is now the prime dark historical site of Cape Verde. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: Built within a year of Portugal 's right-wing Estado Novo taking power under dictator Salazar, the Tarrafal prison served as a deliberately remote place for incarcerating political prisoners, especially from 1936, with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, when repression against (alleged) communists tightened. The prison, also known as "Campo da morte lenta" ('camp of slow death') for its horrid torture methods, also served as the main detention camp for captured rebels and revolutionaries during Portugal's West African colonial wars, in particular in Guinea-Bissau and Angola (both of which are still reeling from post-colonial troubles to this day). The history of the camp can accordingly be divided into two phases. The first one lasted from the camp's foundation to the mid 1950s, when it housed exiled political prisoners from the Portuguese homeland. Partly due to international protests this phase came to an end in 1954. But the camp soon reopened in the 1960s for African resistance fighters against the colonial rule – and it continued to serve that function right to the end.